1. Field of the Invention
One or more embodiments of the present invention relate to a lithium titanium oxide, a method of preparing the lithium titanium oxide, and a lithium rechargeable battery including the lithium titanium oxide.
2. Description of the Related Art
A lithium ion battery is a kind of a rechargeable battery that generates electricity by motion of lithium ions between a cathode and an anode. The lithium ion rechargeable battery generally includes a cathode, an anode, an electrolyte, and a separator. Cathode and anode active materials as components of the lithium ion battery constitute a structure in which lithium ions move by reversible reactions from the anode active material to the cathode active material during discharging and vice versa during charging.
A lithium metal has been used as an anode active material. However, when a lithium metal is used in a battery, short circuits may occur in the battery due to the formation of dendrite, and thus the battery may explode. Thus, a carbon-based material instead of a lithium metal has been widely used as an anode active material.
Examples of the carbon-based active material may include crystalline carbon such as graphite and artificial graphite, and amorphous carbon such as soft carbon and hard carbon. However, although the amorphous carbon has a large capacity, the amorphous carbon has high irreversibility during charging and discharging. Graphite is representatively used as crystalline carbon. In addition, graphite has a high theoretical restrictive capacity of 372 mA h/g, and thus graphite is used as an anode active material. However, although graphite or a carbon-based active material have a relatively high theoretical capacity, the theoretical capacity is no more than about 380 mAh/g, and thus they may not be used to develop a high-capacity lithium battery.